


Spoils of the Crossfire

by infinite_weyrbrat



Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 16:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2700497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinite_weyrbrat/pseuds/infinite_weyrbrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, how Odin won the Third War of Cybertron.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spoils of the Crossfire

**Author's Note:**

> Upon misreading "Midgrade" gasoline as "Midgard" for the umpteenth time, I said to my husband, "...Because the world really needs Megatron squabbling with Odin over the Norwegian offshore oil fields." It turned into this. Um, enjoy!

_Like all of Asgard above and around it, but mostly above, the vault that held Odin's greatest treasures was spacious. Large enough, by foreseen necessity, for warriors to do battle within, and strong enough to survive it. Still, the two boy princes pressed close against the Allfather's sides as he led them down the central aisle, as if they walked on a high and narrow catwalk and a fall could be lethal._

_To either side, devices queer and arcane, beyond the boys' comprehension and certainly beyond their mastery, glowed and glimmered and pulsed in response to their passage, as if alive, as if watching. An irrepressible, fascinated grin crossed young Thor's face, revealing a gap between shovel front teeth. Loki, at Odin's other side, was wide-eyed._

_"Once," Odin intoned, "the men of Midgard accepted a simple truth -- that they were not alone in this universe. Some worlds, man believed to be home to their gods. Others, they knew to fear."_

_Loki's pale brow furrowed, calculating -- probably guessing the converse, that Asgard's once-worshippers now denied its existence, owing to the life's work of a missionary king and the relief of a war-scarred nation. He likely also guessed Odin's displeasure, but that wasn't the point of this lesson._

_Thor hadn't guessed anything; his eye had been caught by the hammer leaning in the shadows to their left, the maker's mark on it matching the brighter weapons to either side. In Odin, pride won out over annoyance. He thought the two had been made for each other, but only time -- and Mjolnir itself -- would tell._

_"From a realm of cold and darkness, a sunless world outside the reach of Yggdrasill, came the Decepticons. They came long before our kind, slept beneath the ice and awakened with the land..."_

-

_Eldgja, Iceland, 934 A.D._

The fire canyon roared with rolling stone and snow, smoke and ash and steam. Birds fled; animals fled. As the newborn basalt cooled, the ash settled over a barren stone river -- and a gleam of copper and brass, protruding from the scree of a freshly-fallen cliffside.

Inside the long-buried Ark, a mechanism stirred. It was not one of the warriors; those still lay in pieces on the bridge floor, awaiting repairs that might yet never come. Rather, the Ark's computer, Teletran-One, activated enough to switch to an emergency protocol and dispatch its Sky Spy.

Teletran-One had enough memory left to know that it ought to repair its warriors. It could not, however, find specifications for most of them; nor did it have materials on hand for many of their specialized systems. It would have to remake them, rebuilding them into functional bodies with enough similarity to their old patterns that they wouldn't go violently insane upon the transition. It was more art than science, but Teletran-One had heuristics enough to begin.

Yet Sky Spy found little at first but volcanic destruction. It whirred its way down out of the still-abrasive settling ash, first to the south coast and its islands, and then west along the very edge of the land.

There were villages here, with livestock grazing the land. Sky Spy noted the animals, from beasts of burden dragging loads and farm implements, to bipedal creatures working with simple tools, to one deft fox stealing eggs from a chicken coop. In neither the animals nor the tools did it see much in the way of a pattern to use for its repairs.

In the archipelago, however, there were seafaring entities. The boats were not electronic, but they were elaborate. Teletran-One considered Sky Spy's reports. Not a one of the warriors had been aquatic before, but rebuilding rollers and air warriors as boats was its current best alternative. The lone gun could become a catapult; the camera trio it mapped to spyglass and sextant. One's name, at least, would be well suited. A few of the warriors' psychological profiles indicated that they were extremely poorly suited to non-surface travel modes; to these, Teletran-One assigned animal forms, as the least of the evils.

Thundercracker, now with shiny fabric sails fluttering out behind either shoulder, awakened first among the warriors, and -- of course -- redirected Teletran-One's efforts to Skywarp, who in turn prioritized Megatron. The sequence continued until all the Decepticons stood, most of them busily looking appalled at each other's new forms.

"Worst boarding party ever," Rumble muttered by Thundercracker's foot. Ravage, now a fox, looked up silently, while Thundercracker rumbled his amusement. Soundwave glared at them on Megatron's behalf, but because his dependents were involved, it was only the mildest of scoldings.

Starscream was already pacing, mumbling about particulates and yet eager to get out into the ashy air. Never mind that he no longer had wings -- all Decepticons could fly in their root modes. His impatience was infectious, but Megatron insisted on remaining long enough to sabotage Teletran-One. Then, even Megatron saw no need to remain in what had become an Autobot mausoleum.

On one of the cliffs overlooking the flood basalt, the Decepticons paused. The Ark still gleamed brightly, a spot of fiery color amid greyscale.

"Much time has passed," Megatron told his warriors, summing up what they already knew. What little they already knew. "We are on a planet far from Cybertron. But our mission has not changed."

"How do we know Cybertron still exists?" Skywarp asked. They'd left it in a sort of peril, after all.

"It must exist," Megatron replied, his voice full of desperate conviction. Article of faith established, he moved on quickly. "And if this land is filled with resources, we shall return home with the power to build the ultimate weapon, and conquer the universe."

Starscream lingered a moment longer, eyeing the Ark, the ash on the cliffside, the remaining dark-stained glacier on the cliff above it. Abruptly he aimed and opened fire, discharging several incendiary missiles as well as his lasers.

"Starscream!" Megatron snapped.

"I'm just saying goodbye," Starscream replied flippantly.

"Save your energy. The Autobots have taken their last flight." 

"Thanks for the ride, Prime," Starscream muttered over his shoulder. "Too bad you can't go the rest of the way." And in petty defiance of Megatron, he took one last shot at the cliff.

Melted glacier slid, and water ran, and snowmelt streams poured over the Ark, drenching the piled ash. In moments, the entrance to the Ark was both sealed -- and crushed.

Once again, a mechanism stirred within.

-

_"They would have sacked Midgard," said Odin, "and slaughtered its mortals in single-minded pursuit of energon, their explosive fuel. Little better were their old enemies, the Autobots. But humanity would not face this threat alone."_

-

The first clash of Autobot and Decepticon on Earth occurred at sea, far to the east of the Ark and just off the fjord-slashed shore of a larger landmass. The Decepticons had been drawing up oil from an undersea oil field when a premature shot from Cliffjumper blew up a pile of nearly a hundred energon cubes on Thundercracker's aft deck, shredding his sails and nearly capsizing him. Skywarp, beside Thundercracker, disappeared with a pop. He reappeared a moment later, hovering in robot mode, to return fire from his arm turrets.

Uncomfortable and undergunned in their new alternate modes, both sides drifted landward, and an all-out firefight began on the nearest accessible shoreline. The Transformers, both factions, paid little attention to the screaming humans that scampered away from the small huts and inanimate boats beneath their feet. Of the Autobots, it could at least be said that they _tried_ not to shoot the humans, and sometimes even to shield them as they escaped. But mostly, Autobot shot at Decepticon and Decepticon shot at Autobot, and nothing else mattered.

Nothing, that is, until a spear of light dropped from the sky on the higher ground the humans had run to. The Autobots spun their guns toward it, expecting Skywarp; the Decepticons did the same, expecting Mirage. What had appeared, however, was an army.

"Who are _they_?" Starscream shrieked across at Megatron, keeping one turret trained on Optimus Prime, the other now pointed at the leader of the gold-armored legion.

"More humans," Megatron scoffed.

"You who have threatened Midgard!" Odin Allfather, young, blonde, two-eyed, and the father of an heir unborn, pounded his staff into Norwegian soil. "Face now the wrath of Asgard!"

Megatron laughed, swinging his fusion cannon around. "So I shall."

"No!" Optimus Prime shouted, lunging toward Megatron. But it was too late; the grey tyrant had fired into the Asgardian ranks, sending them staggering in apparent disarray and into defensive postures.

And then Odin shot back, his staff a well-concealed laser. As if that were a signal, the troops behind him rushed forward, down onto the beach, weapons out. They wielded spiked maces and broadswords, telescoping spears and switchbladed axes, but it was their energy weapons that bit into Transformer armor. They fell, in turn, before Transformer weapons, but there was always another warrior to replace the fallen; the Asgardians vastly outnumbered both Cybertronian factions. The Autobots found themselves driven back up the beach, while the Decepticons, crumpled, broken, and leaking oil, fell back into the water and the air.

"We owe you our gratitude, warriors of Asgard," Optimus Prime announced as the last of the Decepticons turned in full flight. He waved his own men to stand down, even though the Asgardians were still bristling. "We have no quarrel with you, or your claim to this land. We have come from a distant world, to stop those who would render destruction here."

"As have we," Odin replied, holding up his staff in a signal to his men. "And as you see, it is Asgard that _did_ protect Midgard from your foes."

"Today, yes. But in the end, only the Autobots can defeat the Decepticons," Optimus Prime sighed. "I fear we have only a moment's reprieve."

Odin was yet young and rash, but he had the wisdom to bite back his resentment. "Asgard will stand with the Autobots then, so long as Midgard is threatened. For Midgard is under our protection."

"We welcome your aid," Optimus Prime said.

"And your knowledge," piped up Bumblebee. "I don't suppose you have a map?"

-

_"Optimus Prime was right," Odin told his sons. "Just after midsummer, the Decepticons turned to the fires beneath Midgard's stone to feed Megatron's hunger for power. They were willing to court the Fimbulwinter."_

-

"At current rate of energy loss," Teletran-One intoned, "cyclical ocean currents will shift catastrophically in two to three days. Restoration of current pattern beyond present technology."

"So we've got one shot at this," Ironhide interpreted. "What's going on, Teletran?"

"My circuits tell me it's Megatron," Optimus Prime murmured, just before Sky Spy confirmed his suspicions. The Decepticons had, indeed, a substantial geothermal energy project in place, north of the Arctic Circle and close to the magnetic pole. Prime had to admit he didn't know how it could affect ocean currents, but that didn't matter. Teletran-One did.

"Warriors of Asgard!" Prime bellowed, getting the attention of the motley but adventuresome trio he'd lately been assigned by Odin. "Assemble! Autobots, tr -- er, move out!"

-

The Decepticons were not, at the time Sky Spy passed overhead, paying all that much attention to their heat-well. Rumble had found something mechanical entombed in glacier ice, something that looked more Cybertronian than Asgardian. It hadn't been extracted yet, but Megatron had glimpsed enough to guess that the glacier held an air warrior of great strength and capacity. Starscream seemed to know more, but Starscream also seemed to be in shock.

Unfortunately for the Autobots, Sky Spy didn't get a good look at all. One might have said that was unfortunate for Skyfire, too.

-

"I thought we were supposed to be on Midgard, not Jotunheim," Fandral grumbled, huddling into his fur-lined hood.

"Do not even jest about that," replied Hogun.

"I, for one," Volstagg agreed, "am glad we are not likely to face the beasts of Jotunheim -- and among them I include the frost giants." The Warriors Three snickered among themselves. The Autobots walking beside them exchanged shrugs, and Volstagg waved a gloved hand in their general direction. "Some of the four-legged variety would give even our new companions some difficulty."

"You mean they'd be too much for Bumblebee?" Sunstreaker jibed, distracted briefly from his own frequent complaints about the cold. He and Fandral had hit it off instantly, and now he and Sideswipe flanked the Warriors Three, with Bluestreak trailing behind and to the left. Walking wasn't the Autobots' preferred mode of travel, but their current ocean-going alternate modes had become useless when the ice had closed in around them. Wheeljack had promised them a conversion that would make them back into boat-shaped hovercars, but he hadn't yet proven to Ratchet's satisfaction that it wouldn't blow up under someone's hull.

Fandral shrugged, giving Sunstreaker a winning smile. "Depends on the monster. Why, there was this one that I would swear was a match for Optimus Prime."

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe both scoffed, and almost missed Hogun's reply.

"But not for _him_."

-

Skyfire wasn't altogether certain of himself on his first patrol, but he was taking it seriously. It was supposed to be a simple assignment, not an unimportant one. That much he had gleaned from first Megatron and then Starscream. There was a real and present threat, primarily from the Autobots, but also from the "offworld interlopers" of Asgard.

Starscream had been terse, and Megatron little better, about the years he'd slept through, beneath the ice cap of Midgard. _(He'd crashed into ocean. There hadn't been an ice cap. Had glaciation and melt brought him to the surface from the depths? Had he this bitter, frozen climate to thank for his salvation?)_ But about Asgard, Skyfire sensed that the little Starscream told him was really all he knew.

Midgard had native creatures with marginal intelligence. Starscream had dismissed them, all too jaded. "You'll want to watch your step." The Asgardians were biological organisms of similar size and build, but they were spacefaring, and by way of artificial wormholes, no less. Cybertron had only legends of such technology; Skyfire and Starscream had been hundreds of thousands of years en route to this world.

Starscream called the Asgardians' transit "space teleportation," and mentioned that his wingman Skywarp had a similar ability, but limited to a four-mile radius. Skyfire was curious, to say the least.

He was also curious about Asgard and its people. But small and "squishy" or not, it wasn't hard to believe that such an advanced race posed Megatron's warriors a threat. And so, when Skyfire spotted the figures on approach -- mechanical and biological together, and all strangers -- he hefted his little-used handgun. It was time to make the shift from science to war.

-

"Halt! Identify yourselves!"

Optimus Prime stopped hastily, planting his big blue feet wide on the ice, and the Autobots spread out on either side of him. He did not, however, answer the question. "Autobots! Heads up!"

"You are Autobots, and Asgardians," the other replied. "You must be destroyed!"

Optimus Prime and the other Autobots ducked for any cover they could find as the enormous new Decepticon opened fire -- a Decepticon who, from the look of him, still had his Cybertronian alternate mode, an air transport. Had their enemies managed to bring reinforcements from Cybertron? Prime filed away the thought for later; now he didn't have time to consider it.

The Warriors Three had run forward, heedless, and now Volstagg was launching Hogun through the air at their adversary. Looking puzzled, the big jet simply deflected him off one flat forearm, and caught him with the other hand. He flinched, but only a little, as Hogun's mace came down hard on his thumb.

"Don't fire!" Prime warned his warriors. "We might hit Hogun!"

"I'm a better sharpshooter than that," Cliffjumper complained, but Prime ignored him.

The Asgardians had no such compunctions. Hogun was distraction enough for Fandral to aim and fire his energy weapon, at close range nastier than its Autobot counterparts, almost straight up at the blue canopy. The Decepticon yelped and dropped Hogun, stumbling back under a renewed barrage of Autobot laser fire. "Starscream!" he cried out in dismay.

It wasn't the cry for help Prime expected from a Decepticon, but -- perhaps an air warrior specifically, yes. "Dig in!" he warned his warriors, and fortunately, the Warriors Three returned to Autobot lines this time, just ahead of the line of fire of a three-Seeker air strike.

"Split up," Prime murmured to Ironhide, Prowl and Ratchet, closest to him, as quietly as he could manage. "Search the area. They won't let themselves be caught alone again, which means they won't follow us all."

Nods all around, and his lieutenants crept off to gather their individual groups. Louder, Prime called, "Disengage! Retreat!"

When the Autobots went their separate ways, the Decepticons held their icy ground, and didn't follow at all.

-

"I didn't intend for you to fend off the whole Autobot army by yourself," Starscream told Skyfire, his voice half-impressed, half-apologetic. The tone was genuine enough that Skywarp and Thundercracker stared at each other in surprise. "You were right to call for help when you did."

"Thank you for coming so quickly," Skyfire replied, including all three Seekers.

Starscream nodded acknowledgment and dismissal. "They're not gone. They'll be back. Skywarp, Thundercracker, fly a search pattern. Track their locations. Pick them off only if they're foolish enough to be caught alone."

As the two took off, their flight constrained only slightly by their robot modes, Starscream looked up at Skyfire, face thoughtful, red optics bright. "You've seen the Autobots now."

"And three Asgardians."

"Yes, three Asgardians." Starscream waved one blue hand. "They pose a greater threat when there are three hundred."

"I can see how that is likely."

"Still. You've seen the Autobots. _All_ the Autobots, unless I miscounted. I didn't intend for you to fight all of them by yourself, but they should not be particularly difficult for the mustered Decepticon forces."

"You are... optimistic?" Skyfire guessed. Starscream didn't sound optimistic at all; rather, he sounded cynical.

"Under Megatron's leadership, we have failed to achieve true victory for a very long time." Starscream raised one hand to his canopy, poking it with a jutting thumb. "I will be Decepticon leader one day, and we will defeat whatever Autobots are left." A beat, through which Skyfire knew his old partner well enough to wait. "You will be my second in command, I think. I remember our friendship well. You have always been dependable."

Well. At least Starscream had more confidence in Skyfire's future as a warrior than Skyfire himself did. He nodded gravely, simply accepting Starscream's statements as he had all the others.

_Nine million years have passed. Cybertron as we knew it is gone._

_It is much more exciting._

-

"Ah, the work goes well," Megatron observed, looking from his heat-well to an increasing pile of energon cubes -- several hundred, so far. "Soon we will have all the energon cubes we need."

"Then we'll soon return to Cybertron and leave this dead planet of ice behind us?" Starscream asked hopefully. As if, Megatron thought, Earth were already completely frozen, rather than soon to be so. Well, Starscream was full of troublesome neuroses -- and occasional unwarranted optimism.

"Yes, Starscream," Megatron rumbled. "Unless we are foolish enough to be... careless!" He pointed to the eavesdroppers he'd sensed while the Seeker was talking. "Seize those Autobots!"

-

_"I remember this story!" Thor cut in excitedly. "Volstagg tells it at feasts. The Decepticons had captured the Autobots, and put them before a firing squad. But the Warriors Three found them at the very last minute, fought off the Decepticons, and saved the helpless Autobots."_

_"Mother told me," Loki argued, "that the Autobot Hound tricked the Decepticons with an illusion, to make them think the firing squad had done its job."_

_"Yes, well," Thor agreed disgustedly. "She would say that to you."_

_"Regardless," Odin cut in, "the Autobots survived and escaped, and the two Decepticons who were sent to be the firing squad were blamed. Humiliated. Punished."_

-

"You have failed me, Starscream," Megatron growled. "Laserbeak informs me the Autobots have survived."

Starscream, still rubbing the back of his head where an energon cube had struck him -- and fortunately not exploded -- scowled at nothing. "Hound's holograms. He tricked me!"

"Holograms?" Outside the cave entrance, but huddled against it so that he could see and hear the others, Skyfire looked from Starscream to Megatron, blank and baffled enough to mostly cover the hope and pleased surprise in his voice. Starscream hadn't told his commander about the argument they'd had, or that Skyfire had flatly refused to play executioner, effectively leaving the job to Starscream. Neither one of them had been happy about that, but Starscream still hoped Skyfire would come around.

Still, covering for him with Megatron was going to be hard. If he intended to have Skyfire by his side when he staged his coup, he'd have to move soon.

"Holographic projections," Starscream clarified. "Hound has holographic projection capabilities. Mirage has the related ability to cloak himself in near-complete invisibility. Trailbreaker can project magnetic force fields --"

"Enough!" Megatron roared. "This is not the time for a lesson in the enemy's weaponry. You, Skyfire, will follow Starscream's orders to the letter, and you, Starscream, will make sure you get the job done this time!" Megatron dropped his right hand at the wrist, pointing with his fusion cannon instead of his forefinger. Starscream took a step backward, nervously looking down the great black barrel -- now reshaped to nest within a catapult's lever arm, but no less effective in root mode -- at the glowing point of perpetual singularity contact within.

"Yes, mighty Megatron," he soothed, softening his voice as much as he could.

"No. You will not harm him." Skyfire's voice, firm, and Starscream had just enough time to curse inwardly before Megatron fired -- into the ceiling, raining ice down around all of them. Skyfire's big hand and wrist were between them, and Megatron staggered back from the unexpected and powerful blow. Skyfire grabbed his leg in passing, clumsily, but managed to topple him. Starscream sprinted for the entrance Skyfire was blocking. If he could get outside, under the open sky, he'd feel safer. Skyfire seemed to understand, and backed off to let him out.

"Cover!" Starscream ordered, diving for a jagged ridge of ice himself. "This is going to be a firefight." There was no way around it. The advantage of surprise was lost. There were other Decepticons appearing around them, but most of them appeared more eager to watch and see who came out the victor than to take either side.

"There's nothing big enough here to cover me," Skyfire replied grimly.

"Traitors!" Megatron bellowed as he came out of the cave. "Get them!"

The other Decepticons hesitated, as Starscream had known they would. He brought his null ray to bear, but not soon enough. Megatron, too, found cover in the ice. Biting back his frustration, Starscream edged sideways, looking for a clear shot.

"Get me?" Skyfire scoffed, putting away the hand weapon he'd only just drawn. "Come and get me!" And he launched into the air, transforming as he went, then circling around for a strafing pass. Starscream wouldn't have done that; Megatron's gun was too powerful and his aim generally too good for an air strike to be effective. But at least he was a distraction. If he could just --

Something hit him from behind, and he toppled to the ice. "Gotcha," announced Reflector's triple-voice.

Circuits shorting in a painful cascade, Starscream thought he saw Skyfire running down Megatron, guns blazing, and Megatron landing one solid shot to Skyfire's fuselage before he fell. He thought he saw Skyfire founder into the sky, and manage to turn aside, crashing back down in a blaze of oily smoke and bright flames and -- green crystal.

Oh.

Oh, no.

Starscream saw no more.

-

From much better cover, Optimus Prime watched with narrowed blue optics. "Well. That was... unexpected. And fortuitous."

Below, the snow had slid in, a great avalanche, to cover the Decepticons' wrecked heat-well, and Skyfire's fallen frame with it. Snowmelt from his burning fuel was already beginning to re-freeze. Uncertain and chattering among themselves, the other Decepticons had apparently decided that both Megatron and Starscream were worth dragging home, but every look they shot toward the avalanche was dubious.

"In another life," Hound said softly, "he might have been a hero."

Cliffjumper snorted. "Or he might've just been Starscream's lackey. That's all I saw."

The Warriors Three exchanged glances, coming to silent agreement that this development was one Odin needed to be made aware of, and soon. "If we are finished here," Hogun put in, "we must return to Asgard for a time."

"As you wish," Optimus Prime replied.

"We will return," Hogun promised. "We look forward to fighting beside you once again."

"You bet," Ironhide drawled. "We're always glad for the help."

Hogun didn't smile -- Hogun never smiled -- but his comrades, and many of the Autobots, did.

-

_"Your mother, Queen Frigga, gave me a prophecy," Odin told his sons. "Both Transformer factions would be -- and were -- defeated by treachery. Mine."_

_Thor spluttered. Loki grinned fit to split his face. Odin looked straight forward, facing neither. They had come nearly to the end of the walkway. Ahead of them, only a few paces away, white light speared through a lattice wall. But before that wall stood a pedestal, and atop it the vault's greatest treasure, resplendent in its own blue-white illumination._

_"Some wisdom," Odin continued, "even a king must heed. Clad in her illusions, I tricked Optimus Prime away from his warriors, and ambushed him alone, rendering him unconscious, so that I might understand his kind better. Such is the key to defeating many an enemy."_

_Loki was smirking at Thor. That wouldn't do. Odin continued his story, setting aside the lesson._

_"That is when I found the Matrix."_

-

The great red warrior lay where he had fallen, blue eyes gone dark and glassy with unconsciousness. The curved hull that made up his chest had split open at the keel, and now lay ajar. Odin didn't think the Prime was so fragile; rather, he suspected a hinge, some catch inadvertently undone.

Well, he'd come for intelligence, and a door had opened before his eyes.

The fingers of his left hand gripped the Tesseract tightly, while he used the staff in his right to prop him up as he hefted himself atop the Transformer's huge body. The Tesseract sang, and pulled, and _helped_ , as it was occasionally wont to do even with conventional modes of travel.

It took Odin a moment to realize that the blue glow inside Optimus Prime's armored hull was far too bright to be a reflection. There was a device inside, like a metal sculpture of an eye, except that the pupil of the golden iris glowed with the light of a blue-white crystal within.

Odin had only half reached for it when it rose, levitating before him, ascending of the Tesseract's will, or perhaps its own. The suspicion that it was acting of its own accord didn't sit well with the Asgardian king, and he set down his staff to hold the Tesseract with both hands. Bringing the cube between himself and the eye -- which he would soon learn to call the Matrix -- he asserted his dominance.

At his command, the Matrix turned to face him, its white light almost too brilliant to look upon.

_Information._ The thought was in his mind, suddenly, in the way of the Tesseract. _Seek wisdom here._

"Wisdom I seek," Odin-and-the-Tesseract echoed. "Expand my mind." One hand released the Tesseract, and stretched out to touch the golden shell.

And the world exploded in light.

-

"What is this?" Megatron's voice was a harsh rasp across Starscream's audio, and his tempered-hard fingertips bit into the Seeker-boat's shoulder. "Surely a coward such as you did not fell Optimus Prime!"

Starscream -- forgiven, but not forgiving; biding his time -- swiveled his head to look up at his commander, and a wicked smirk crossed his sharp features. "Prime and Odin felled each other. I saw it happen, and in doing so, _I_ found one of the Asgardian transportation devices," he bragged.

Below the points of his bent knees, between his blue toes and the red armor of Optimus Prime, the treacherous Odin Allfather lay, his face a bloody, shattered mess. The staff had fallen carelessly, but the Tesseract still lay propped against his side, almost as if it had chosen where to fall. Prime himself showed little sign of his injuries, the Matrix hidden once again within his chest. Starscream hadn't done anything; it had simply retracted, and Starscream, while by no means superstitious, had a sense that it was better not to tangle with the greatest power the Autobots possessed.

The Asgardians were another matter.

Now, Starscream finally reached for the Tesseract, not letting Megatron see that he'd hesitated to touch it before. Coward indeed!

_\-- Matrix wisdom Tesseract space bridge ancient Cybertron Autobot dark energy --_

"This alone," Starscream breathed, staring into the cube's nearest facet, "could power our ship back to Cybertron."

"Well done," Megatron purred. "Bring it to Soundwave immediately. We will launch as soon as it is ready."

"Yes, mighty Megatron!"

Pleased with their prospects, Megatron never thought to ask if there was more that his second had seen. Not until it was far too late.

-

To the very launchpad the Autobots fought their ancient enemy, the Decepticons. As they watched in helpless dismay, the new Decepticon starship Victory lifted off on blazing thrusters and became but a bright point in the smoky sky -- before abrutly twisting and falling out of it. Far off the Norwegian coast, in the cold North Atlantic, the Victory ended its spectacular plunge in a blaze of fire and a wash of salty water.

Hidden from Transformer view, the Asgardian observers, the Warriors Three, watched with bewilderment equal to their former Autobot allies, until Mirage, not much the worse for wear, reappeared to explain himself to Optimus Prime.

But from his golden bed in Valaskjalf, deep in the Odinsleep and not yet physically recovered from the loss of his eye, Odin saw all.

-

_"So it's true," Loki said as the Allfather paused. "They say you traded your eye for the Sight."_

_"For wisdom," Odin corrected gently._

_"But they say it was at the Well of Urdr."_

_"And that is where they are wrong." Odin gave Loki a small, almost conspiratorial smile._

_"What happened next?" Thor prodded, and Odin sighed._

_"The Autobots had made their position clear; they preferred to fight their war with the Decepticons on Midgard rather than Cybertron. Optimus Prime had recovered from my theft of the knowledge within the Matrix, and he and Megatron would have gladly continued their war for a thousand lifetimes to come. Our only good fortune seemed to be that the Decepticons had made no better use of the Tesseract than for transportation, but we had lost that as well. It was time I made good use of the fruits of my own treachery."_

_At Odin's wordless summons, the bright grid behind the Matrix parted into white light, and the Destroyer stepped out. Having no target, it stood at attention, then, as if it were no more than a simple metal sentry._

_"Of Transformer-grade armor and weaponry, I built the Destroyers. Our very own metal army."_

-

"What ... _are_ those?" Starscream looked to Megatron in bewilderment, and then across at Wheeljack, accusingly. But from the near-cessation of laser fire from the Autobot side, it seemed they had no better idea than the Decepticons.

In neat ranks, inexorable, the dark forms approached. They were small, like Autobots tended to be; much bigger, of course, than humans or Asgardians, or even Soundwave's minions. They weren't centurions; they weren't bulbous or top-heavy, and they definitely had heads. Sharp, pointy, almost crowned heads. Their eyes were a fiery orange, more Decepticon than Autobot, but without being truly indicative.

"Asgardian," Megatron growled, scanning the horizon for signs of the fleshlings. "They have to be."

"Odin stole our technology!" Starscream exclaimed shrilly. It made an ugly kind of sense, after that incident with the Matrix.

"Identify yourselves," Optimus Prime called out to the approaching ranks, voice resigned, as if he expected no answer. And indeed, a moment later, "Megatron! What trickery is this?"

"Not ours, Prime!" the Decepticon leader shouted back.

"I don't see what's so scary about them," Skywarp taunted. "Line 'em up and knock 'em down!"

"Yeah," agreed Rumble, substituting arms for piledrivers. Seconds later, the ground was crumbling to the feet of the dark soldiers, as Skywarp battered them with laser fire from above.

"Hold your fire," Optimus Prime called to his own troops, and Megatron silently signaled the same to Starscream. _That_ was just interesting enough that the Air Commander didn't call him on his cowardice.

One of the dark soldiers halted. Its segmented steel mask retracted, and for an instant, it had a whole face of blank, smelter-hot flame.

And then it fired, an enormous wave of energy that knocked Rumble sprawling, smoking and shattered. One of its fellows was not far behind it in blasting Skywarp out of the sky, and Thundercracker right after.

One after another, masks lifted, and energy blasts loosed -- as many, now, at the Autobots as the Decepticons. "Take to the skies!" Megatron shouted to his remaining warriors. "Destroy them!"

They weren't invulnerable. Megatron's fusion cannon collapsed two, and Optimus Prime's sharpshooting took out a third -- in eight or so hits, if Starscream counted them all. A few more fell before the combined efforts of Autobot and Decepticon. But three quarters of the Asgardian mechanisms were still marching, still shooting.

Even Starscream had nothing to say when both faction leaders called a retreat. He did, however, have a new and radical idea forming -- one that would give him conquest at last. One that would give him absolute, unrivaled dominion.

-

Getting to Teletran-One without being detected was the hard part, but a half-developed weapon of Megatron's served Starscream well. Sabotaging Teletran-One's reformatter -- that wasn't so hard, given Starscream's technical bent. All he needed was one small latent flaw in the transformation system, one that wouldn't manifest before he was ready to act.

The next phase of his plan went unnoticed with little to no effort on his part. He began by taunting the Autobots in battle -- already an art form among Decepticons.

"You're not so hot, Sunstreaker! An Asgardian skiff is faster than you. And better looking, too!"

Of course, the Autobots taunted back. "And why should I accept fashion advice from a boat?" Sunstreaker scoffed. Starscream, however, was on to another target, leaving Sunstreaker with his own unanswered question.

"What was that, Prime? Six shots, eight, to fell a mere Asgardian automaton? Wearing down in your old age?" Never mind that Starscream was probably older than Optimus Prime. No one was counting.

Now, if someone _had_ been counting, and counting words instead of years, that someone might have noticed that Starscream was using the word _Asgardian_ in nearly every sentence that day. But that someone still might not have thought anything of it.

Within Asgard's Bifrost gatehouse, Heimdall did notice when the Autobots responded to Starscream's mocking. The message he sent to Odin didn't reach the young king in time for him to do anything, however, about Sky Spy. In a matter of hours, Optimus Prime and all his Autobots had new alternate modes again -- the forms of Asgardian weapons and ships of war.

-

"We cannot allow the Autobots to gain the upper hand!" Megatron snarled. The Decepticon warlord paced, one fist gesturing with every step. "They have used our new enemies, the Asgardians, to upgrade themselves, while we languish in these mockeries of primitive constructions. We must do the same as Prime's warriors have done -- no, we must do better!"

Starscream almost remained silent, for once in his life. Megatron was, after all, playing right into his hands. Fortunately, however, Starscream saw the trap coming a few moves ahead; he'd give himself away if he was too complacent. Or he'd end up having to go under the reformatter's ray himself. That was probably worse.

"And how do you intend to do that?" Starscream scoffed. "The Autobots have the reformatter. The Autobots have Teletran-One. The Autobots have Sky Spy. We have -- what?" He gestured around their base, which was generally sufficient for their tactical and personal needs, even comfortable -- but it was neither equipped nor staffed for massive troop reconfigurations.

"You underestimate me, Starscream," Megatron responded with amusement rather than anger. "Sky Spy and the reformatter will be ours. We will steal them." He cast his gaze toward first Reflector, then Ravage, but it was Frenzy and Rumble that chuckled their anticipation first.

"Teletran-One we don't need," the warlord went on. "Soundwave is entirely competent enough to manage the process manually -- unlike some people here, who haven't been showing much competence at all."

Starscream took the bait. "Are you calling me incompetent? If I were the leader of the Decepticons, we'd be back on Cybertron by now! Or better, we'd be on Asgard, bleeding it dry of energy and smelting down its gold into conductor rods!"

"But you are not the leader of the Decepticons, and this folly shows exactly why!" Megatron growled.

Starscream glared daggers at him. "I will be."

"Never! You have learned nothing from your mistakes."

Perhaps Starscream should have made some attempt to talk Megatron down, to beg for his life, when the fusion cannon swung around to train on him once again. He did manage to duck, just slightly, and even as consciousness faded he knew the damage was non-lethal.

Perfect.

-

_"The second time," Odin told his sons, "I was ready. I captured the device they had used to spy on us -- little more than a child's flying plaything -- and stole its receiving half from the Decepticons, after they in turn stole it from the Autobots. I was too late to prevent the Decepticons from using it, of course, but that didn't matter. In the end, it served us."_

-

The reformatter was a curious device, even to one who now deeply understood Transformers. Odin sighed, and handed the small, round scanner part to baby Thor, while he worked at getting the projection component to run off a half-disassembled Destroyer's power source. Granted, letting Thor touch it might not have been the best idea for the scanner part's preservation, but Transformer components were built tough.

Thor cooed at it, for the moment content to sit quietly on a blanket and turn the round-hulled device between his hands. But then, as Thor so often did, he generated a spark between his palms, a bright flare crackling across the metal of the scanner.

The scanner uncurled with a whir, extending its sensory components. Thor didn't cry, but stared at it with wide blue eyes and a trembling lower lip as its laser-grid slid down his soft infant limbs and round torso, over his outsized head. Then it shut down again, and after a moment of silence, Thor looked to Odin for help or reassurance.

Odin smiled at the baby and leaned down to kiss his forehead -- something Thor would again let him do, but only when the eyepatch was on, and only barely then. "You've done well, my son," he told the infant prince. "You've given me an idea. One that will let us win this war."

-

The first battle in which Autobot and Decepticon alike had their new Asgardian forms should have been devastating. Certainly they looked newly imposing -- Optimus Prime squarish again, the dark grey of steel and stone, accented in bronze; Megatron unexpectedly sleek and sharp around the gun arm, and cast in gold; the others no less fierce and strange, save for Starscream. The Seeker still had fluttering sails behind his shoulders and his usual bright colors. He was, Megatron had said, doomed to be but a ferry for better warriors, and now it seemed he was to be the easiest target as well.

Well, he'd show them.

He let himself get shot, one more time, to elude suspicion as he withdrew from the fighting. Then he retrieved the cleverly hidden Transfixatron, and began to snipe off Autobots and Decepticons. Ironhide, charging Soundwave like the boar whose head graced his carriage form, tusks ablaze with lasers. Mirage, using speed to outrun pursuit just before he disappeared. Brawn as a wickedly spiked mace, midair, hurtling toward Megatron -- who deflected him anyway.

And then Thundercracker, also still a boat, but a warship now with speed and hover capabilities, skimming easily over land and shoal as well as open sea. Skywarp, as a dagger thrown by Megatron. The parts of Reflector, one-two-three, as they dropped into their small forms to evade Sideswipe.

He knew he'd have to force-transform a few of them, which he wasn't looking forward to, but he could do it. Particularly if that few turned out to amount to, say, Soundwave and Bumblebee, whose stealthy alternate modes weren't all that much use in combat. His null ray would take care of anyone who tried to flee.

Finally, Optimus Prime transformed into his weapon mode, even though there was no one to pick him up; lightning crashed to the ground around him, an unexpected expression of power in a form Starscream had thought inert. Well, nothing for it. He activated the Transfixatron on the Prime -- and then on the laughing, gloating Megatron in his spear form.

"Better a ferry," Starscream muttered, "than a hand toy."

-

"I have come to you with a gift." Starscream's thin, dark grey lips curved in a smirk, and his red optics glowed softly as he regarded Odin Allfather. He didn't bow, but his tone was conciliatory.

"The best and the brightest," Starscream went on, with a trace of sarcasm on the latter adjective, "of the Autobots and Decepticons of Cybertron. Treasures, tools, weapons, baubles, fit for the King of Asgard. They will never again transform. They will never again threaten you. They are but slaves to your army and your whim."

Starscream paused, the smirk appearing a second time. "I leave it to you to decide which faction serves you better."

"What is it that you want from me, Starscream?" Odin met the red gaze steadily, head held high, body straight and proud.

He knew the treacherous Decepticon second-in-command, now, as well as Optimus Prime did. While there were puzzles left to be solved in Starscream's behavior, and an element of unpredictability that made him dangerous even to those most familiar with him -- to which the inert forms of both Optimus Prime and Megatron stood testament -- he certainly knew Starscream well enough not to trust him. At all.

"Asgardian support of my rule of Cybertron," Starscream replied promptly. "I plan to return there with news of victory and the energon that Midgard has so kindly provided. I cannot be certain what has transpired there since our departure, but I am certain," he emphasized the word, and then paused for dramatic flair, "that no Cybertronian army can stand against Asgard's. Especially with _these_ weapons in hand.

Odin considered -- not whether to accept Starscream's offer at face value, but how to counter effectively. Starscream would not stop; Starscream would not retreat gracefully. If Cybertron would not kneel before him -- and Odin thought it well might not -- Starscream would treat his countrymen there no differently than he had treated his fellow warriors on Midgard. And Asgard's support would not protect it from Starscream's tyranny.

And yet, Odin could see potential. Untempered, yes, but worth something.

"I accept your gifts," he said at last, gravely. "But I require one last item of you: the device you used to transfix them in their present forms. Bring me that device."

Starscream nodded warily.

"Then," Odin promised, "I shall crown you myself, and provide you with an equal share of the treasure of Asgard. On this you have my word."

-

_"We withdrew from the other worlds," Odin told his sons, "and returned home, to the realm eternal: Asgard. Here we remain as a beacon of hope, shining out across the stars. And though we have fallen into man's myths and legends, it was Asgard, and its warriors, that brought peace to the universe."_

_"And did you keep your word?" Loki asked, eyes bright._

_"Of course he did," Thor scoffed defensively. Loki ignored him. The second prince valued cleverness as much as honor, a trait that got him frequently in trouble, but also enabled him to understand his father's more subtle stories._

_Odin nodded, soothing Thor. "Half immediately, half yet to come." With a wry look at Loki, he explained, "Once I had the device, I turned it on Starscream, and the Matrix afterward. He is a harmless creature now, one that even now I keep close by. He remembers nothing. The Matrix has his memories, now, too, in safekeeping."_

_Loki frowned thoughtfully, and then abruptly grinned at the back wall, beyond which the Destroyer stood vigil. "You didn't give him a crown, just a vault containing the treasures that now belong to Asgard."_

_"I said a harmless creature, Loki... perhaps I exaggerate, but he is not the Destroyer. Yet you are right. It is the symbolic crown of Cybertron that I withheld, until he learns the wisdom to bear it -- and perhaps that will be so long in coming that one of you must take my place in the bargain." Odin looked first at Thor, then back at Loki. "Treasure he has, though, for to live in peace among the thriving is a greater treasure than gold and weapons. What king would be content to rule a world reduced to ash?"_

_"Not I!" Thor agreed, pretending he hadn't just been staring at Mjolnir again. Mjolnir, still imbued with the silent spirit of a great warrior and benevolent ruler, the heart of a healer and the patient strength of a peasant laborer. Never mind the Matrix; the wisdom of a single Prime would serve Thor well._

_"Will others come from Cybertron?" Loki asked anxiously._

_Thor jumped in before Odin could answer, his grin huge. "When I'm king, I'll hunt the monsters down and slay them all, just as you did, Father."_

_He sought Odin's approval, but found only weariness in his father's face as Odin turned from the Matrix. "A wise king never seeks out war, but he must always be ready for it." The Primes had known that, much better than the young and impetuous Asgardian king who had gone to war against them._

_"I'm ready, Father," Thor said, trotting at Odin's side toward the vault entrance._

_"So am I," Loki hastily agreed as he caught up to the other two, apparently having forgotten that Odin hadn't answered his question about Cybertron._

_Odin smiled at the show of boyish overexuberance, reminding himself to be glad they were growing up in peacetime and could afford to be so foolish. "Only one of you can ascend to the throne, but both of you were made to be kings."_

_Behind them, one by one, the former Transformers powered down, leaving only the light of the Matrix. Odin didn't let himself show any reaction to the impressive show of recognition, lest either of the boys realize the all-seeing Allfather had never witnessed it before._

_Lest Starscream realize he already ruled._

-

_Epilogue_

Despite all his haste in arranging transport, Phil Coulson arrived on the Arctic ice sheet to find excavation already well in progress. SHIELD agents swarmed the site, the edge of twilight around the southern horizon too faint to make their black garb stand out against the ice. The floodlights they'd set up did more to cast large shadows than provide general illumination.

Coulson paused to scan the site, his eyes sliding over the perimeter of red lights. Swept wings, blunt nose, short tail. The squarish corners and the even proportions gave him the answer he needed, and quickly. He sighed in disappointment.

"What is it?" Sitwell asked him.

"It's not the Valkyrie," Coulson replied, and strode forward again. The agents had dug through in several places. The nearest and deepest pit led down to a single flat white panel, its gleam giving little indication of where the frost on it had been fully removed -- save for those remaining lines of crushed ice and powder over an angular purple sigil. Coulson crouched beside the revealed panel, brushing away some of that ice with his own hand.

"Okay, but ... what _is_ it?" Sitwell tried again.

Coulson rocked back on his heels, staring at the sharp points of the strange purple symbol.

"I have no idea."


End file.
